Announcements

Steinbeck Research Fund Honors John Ditsky

thanks to a generous donation from Mrs. C. Suzette Ditsky, emerging Steinbeck scholars will be able to utilize the outstanding resources in the Ball State University Libraries. The Steinbeck Research Fund has been established in honor of Mrs. Ditsky’s late husband, John, who passed away on May 15, 2006. Dr. Tetsumaro Hayashi, a longtime friend, said, “He was first and foremost a passionate and dedicated scholar, teacher, and mentor.” Hayashi commented that the Research Fund was “established to honor Ditsky’s long-established legacy of extending a helping hand to emerging Steinbeck scholars.”

Fig 1.

John Ditsky

Guidelines

Recipients will spend a minimum of five days doing intensive research using the Steinbeck collections or other materials from the Ball State University Libraries. The results of this research must be submitted for publication in a professional, scholarly, Steinbeck-related journal, and/or presented at a Steinbeck conference, convention, or lecture at a university.

Applications

Applicants should submit two copies of a one- or two-page, double-spaced, Steinbeck-related research proposal, a curriculum vita, and a completed application form (available soon at http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/archives/). Send applications to John B. Straw, Archives and Special Collections Research Center, Bracken Library Room 210, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306.

For more information

Contact Mr. Straw at jstraw@bsu.edu.

Contributions to the fund

Please send payment to the Ball State University Foundation (include Fund No. 5112 on the check).

2016 Louis Owens Essay Prize

About the Louis Owens Prize

In memory of the late Steinbeck scholar Louis Owens, the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies established this award to honor undergraduate or graduate student work on Steinbeck and related subjects. The award is given annually to the best undergraduate or graduate student essay on Steinbeck. Students may submit, or faculty may submit on their behalf.

Fig 2.

Professor Louis Owens

Call for Submissions

Deadline: Postmark of January 31, 2017.

Length: 12-40 pages

Format: MLA

Award: $250.00 and possible publication in Steinbeck Review

Send as attachment to mhccfss@gmail.com or by regular mail to:

Louis Owens Essay Prize

Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies

San José State University

San José, CA 95192-0202

If you wish to support the prize, please make donation checks payable to the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies and note on check that it is for the “Louis Owens Essay Prize.”

Louis Owens Essay Prize Winner 2015

Sonia Hoang Hamilton, University of California, Berkeley.

Fig 3.

Sonia Hoang Hamilton

“The Legacy of Steinbeck’s Interchapters: The Effects of Palimpsest on Group Consciousness and Universality”

Sonia Hoang Hamilton is an undergraduate English major at UC Berkeley, where she has been and continues to be inspired by the work of John Steinbeck. Her essay examines the palimpsestic structure shared by the modern play House/Divided and Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath. She receives a $250 honorarium and publication in a forthcoming issue of Steinbeck Review.